Characterization of Sample Return Mission Targets

2026-04-18T00:00:00Z

Organisateurs : DeMeo, Francesca et Binzel, Richard
LOC : Antonella Barucci (LESIA, tel : 01 45 07 77 75)

Three major space organizations, ESA, NASA, and JAXA are all evaluating missions to visit
a primitive asteroid and return a sample from the surface to study in laboratories on Earth.
Sample return is the most pressing achievement in asteroid science that is necessary to furthur
our understanding of the circumstances in the early Solar System and the original building
blocks that small bodies and planets were derived from. The goal of this workshop is to gather
our knowledge from the asteroid community about the physical properties of potential
mission targets, such as 1999 RQ36 for OSIRIS, 1999 JU3 for Hyabusa, and 175706 for
Marco Polo. We will determine what additional understanding of these bodies and of a suite
of potential back-up targets must be gained to best prepare for the missions, and discuss
characterization of and search for additional back-up targets.

Centre de Conférences Jules Janssen

Characterization of Sample Return Mission Targets